New Directors/New Films Opens 55th Edition With Queer Horror 'Leviticus'

At 7 p.m. on Wednesday, as lights dimmed in a MoMA screening room, the 55th edition of New Directors/New Films opened with a film that steps outside the traditional art-house canon: Adrian Chiarella’s debut feature, Leviticus, a queer conversion-therapy horror set in a small Australian town.

The annual festival, co-presented by The Museum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center, runs April 8–19 and is devoted to first and early features by emerging filmmakers. By choosing a Sundance Midnight breakout about religious fanaticism and attempts to “cure” queer youth as its curtain-raiser, the curators signaled a program willing to lean into genre and overtly political themes.

Opening night screenings of Leviticus began April 8 at MoMA, in a 7 p.m. slot that included both a question-and-answer session with Chiarella and a pre-screening introduction. A second screening and Q&A is scheduled for Thursday evening at Film at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater. The festival’s films will alternate between the Walter Reade and MoMA’s Titus theaters.

Program and themes

The 2026 slate comprises 24 feature-length films and 10 shorts. Organizers note the lineup includes one world premiere, 17 North American premieres, four U.S. premieres and 12 New York premieres, underscoring the festival’s role as an early U.S. stop for titles from the international circuit.

Program notes emphasize recurring motifs this year: migration and displacement, religion and spirituality, and tensions between individual desire and social norms. The curators framed the selections as politically engaged and formally adventurous, mixing styles and national perspectives.

“The lineup for this year’s edition of New Directors/New Films is replete with artists who—to paraphrase Jean-Luc Godard—aren’t afraid to make political films nor to make films politically,” said Dan Sullivan, a programmer at Film at Lincoln Center. “Their curiosity and courage offer us something like a guiding light in our present darkness.”

Positioning Leviticus

Within that frame, Leviticus functions as both genre piece and pointed social critique. MoMA describes the film as “a chilling directorial debut (which premiered in the Midnight section of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival) about a small Australian town haunted by religious fanatics set on ‘curing’ local boys of their queer urges.” Running about 88 minutes, the film stars Joe Bird and Stacy Clausen, with supporting roles from Mia Wasikowska and Ewen Leslie.

After premiering in Sundance’s late-night section in January, Leviticus was picked up by distributor NEON in a high-profile deal. Early reviews from Sundance praised its use of horror tropes to interrogate homophobia, faith-based control and the violence of conversion practices.

La Frances Hui, curator in MoMA’s Department of Film, highlighted Leviticus as emblematic of the program’s direction. “We are thrilled to spotlight two distinctive new directors whose compelling works bookend this year’s festival. In Leviticus, Adrian Chiarella harnesses horror’s visceral power to confront homophobia with intelligence and imaginative flair,” Hui said.

Her reference to “two distinctive new directors” linked the opener to the festival’s announced Closing Night film, Donkey Days by Rosanne Pel, which debuted at the Locarno Film Festival. Together, the selections bracket a program organizers describe as formally daring and politically attentive.

A niche festival with a track record

Founded in 1972, New Directors/New Films has a distinct role among New York cultural institutions. Co-presented by a major museum and a year-round film organization, the series focuses on promising filmmakers early in their careers rather than established auteurs or awards contenders. Over decades, critics and industry insiders have treated it as a barometer of emerging trends in global cinema and an early chance to see voices that may later move into the mainstream.

The festival’s April timing positions it between winter events such as Sundance and Berlin and the fall awards season, offering New York audiences an early look at films that may not reach general release for months, if at all. The 2026 selection includes titles already launched at other major festivals and several world premieres using New York as a first platform.

Why the shift toward political genre work matters

Sullivan’s comment about filmmakers not being afraid to make political films captures a noticeable shift this year: the co-presenting institutions appear more willing to foreground explicitly political stories and to treat historically marginalized genres — including horror — as serious vessels for those stories. The trend has been visible across film festivals in recent years, but its prominence at a museum-based series like New Directors/New Films is noteworthy.

Organizers pointed to narratives about forced migration, state and religious authority, and collisions between personal identity and traditional expectations as recurring motifs in the program. In that context, a queer horror film about attempted conversion therapy functions as a pointed opening statement.

Practical information

New Directors/New Films continues through April 19 with daily screenings, filmmaker Q&As and selected panels at MoMA and Film at Lincoln Center. The full slate, with synopses, runtimes and day-by-day schedules, is posted on both institutions’ websites, along with ticketing information and festival pass details.

For audiences and critics alike, the 55th edition offers an early, often intimate window into filmmakers at a formative moment in their careers—works that, in some cases, may shape conversations in festivals and theaters to come.